COLLEEN Bartle, from the Siyawela training agency in Port Elizabeth recently presented a reading day for Grade 3 EFAL teachers and learners in Somerset East.
Siyawela is now presenting workshops in the Cookhouse area as the Cookhouse Wind Farm Community Trust has joined forces with the agency. The reading in foundation phase (English as first additional language) programme consists of six workshops for the teachers only.
Each workshop is followed by a mentoring session whereby the facilitators spend time in the classrooms with the teachers. The reading day was for the learners and teachers to discover that reading and learning can be fun for both.
Sixty learners from five schools took part in the reading day in Somerset East. These included the Gilbert Xuza Primary School, Nonzwakazi Primary School, St Teresa’s RC Primary School, W.G. Olivier Primary School and William Oates Primary School.
Reading day was also held in Cookhouse, Adelaide and Bedford. In Adelaide and Bedford, Carol Scheepers facilitated the reading day programmes, while Colleen Bartle handled Cookhouse as well as Somerset East.
This programme aims to build teachers’ skills so that they can prepare their learners for Grade 4 when English becomes their language of instruction (except in Afrikaans schools). Over the course of a year, teachers attend several workshops.
Grade 3 EFAL mentors then conduct regular site visits to support teachers in implementing the knowledge they gained at these workshops.
Siyawela (meaning crossing over) is an independent, non-profit training agency established by the GM South Africa Foundation in 2000. Siyawela education programmes have been piloted and refined over two decades and implements and manages education programmes aligned to the needs of South African schools.
Siyawela’s school-based programmes are aimed at helping schools improve in four areas of the Whole School Development model, leadership management, parents and governance, curriculum matters and school environment.